Beneath The Mask

Chapter 2: Brothers

  "Mr Wayne, please focus." 

  Damian snapped his head up, blinking rapidly. He'd nearly fallen asleep again. This was not good. If he was going to deal with those bullies after school, then he better not be tired, even though he knew he could defeat them single handedly. He rubbed the side of his head, wincing. His headache hadn't gone away all day, so being stuck in a classroom with loud students was not helping in any way.

  "Can you answer my question?" the teacher, Ms Mont, asked. Damian looked up to see her standing over his desk, looking down at him with a raised eyebrow. Damian desperately darted his eyes around the room, searching for any clues around the room. He took in the board, which had several diagrams on it, and quickly put the pieces together. They'd already answered that so that would lead to that then that answer would lead to that question and that question would lead to this side question which the answer would be:

  "North America?" 

  Ms Mont's eyes widened in surprise, but instantly returned to a frown. "Correct. These rare creatures reside in North America specifically in..."

  Damian silently sighed in relief. Thank goodness he'd gotten it right, or who knows what Ms Mont would have done. Well, technically she wouldn't have done much, since he was the son of the man who was funding the school, and if she did any harm to him Father would stop funding the school, which would lead to her being fired. So, he was basically safe, though not from the students. They didn't particularly care. Like the ones he'd met during lunch earlier. 

  His thoughts were interrupted by a light touch on the shoulder. Damian sighed and turned in his seat. "What?' he hissed.

  A young girl sat behind him, with shoulder length straight, dark brown hair. Her eyes were a startling bright green, and her nose was too small to match her face. She wore a bright pink unbuttoned jacket that fitter over a navy blue shirt, and she wore a matching dark blue skirt. Her eyes were wide with admiration. "How'd you figure that out?"

  Damian shrugged. "I'm not stupid. I was listening."

  The girl nodded, seeming to completely believe him. "Wow, I wish I could have answers like that and slept at the same time..." She sighed while she stared off dreamily. "I'd be the smartest girl alive."

  Damian turned back around in his seat, ignoring the girl. He didn't want to have to deal with girls in wonderland. They were annoying and a distraction. A distraction to what, exactly? Well, he didn't know yet. But it was a good enough excuse to go with so he stuck with it.

  "And this incredibly rare creature can only be found in the area of Guatemala. Some say it is extinct, but resources say otherwise--"

  Damian raised his hand. "Ms Mont, that's not true." He'd seen that very creature before, man, he'd touched one before. Instantly regretted it afterwards, but he lived to tell the tale. An image of the mentioned creature was put on a screen before the class so they could see themselves. Damian recognised it immediately. It was rather small, and it almost looked like a snake. In fact, it was very snake like, most likely related to the snake family. It had the long, sleek body of a snake and was a dark purple with black stripes. But it had small spikes on its back, and each sharp spike was tipped with red. Its eyes were a swirl of greens, seeming to hold the forest in its eyes. It had a long red forked tongue, and it's fangs were white and incredibly sharp. It was a Careytya, one the world's rarest and most venomous creatures. Damian himself had been bitten by one, but thanks to his Father the poison hadn't had time to spread. He still had the scar on his shoulder, but luckily it was barely noticeable now. He hated those things. He'd encountered one in Frigha, a small island, on a mission that'd gone wrong. Funny thing, it had occurred quite recently too, only a couple weeks ago. He, Father, Superman and Superboy (Superman's son) had been trapped there, and unfortunately couldn't fly out because their transport had broken down, and Superman couldn't fly out and carry all of them at once, and Superboy couldn't fly. So they'd spent days there, repairing their ship to fly back to Gotham. Unfortunately they found out the hard way that they weren't the only life on the Island.